Lawyer Who Bulletproofed Biden Bucks Now Fighting Trump Admin To Keep Gravy Train Rolling

A former Biden administration official who made it more difficult for agencies to terminate certain grants is now backing several legal efforts to ensure money awarded before President Donald Trump took office keeps flowing to left-wing organizations.

Daniel Jacobson, who was previously general counsel of Biden’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is opposing the Trump administration in cases that seek to restore billions in Biden administration grants from the Department of Education (ED), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He also filed a lawsuit against OMB. (RELATED: There’s A New Law Firm In Washington. It Wants To Take All The Cases Liberals Hate)

Jacobson’s involvement “raises many questions,” Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. He noted that former government lawyers have “obligations regarding what legal matters they can work on after leaving government service, under both federal ethics law and under professional rules of conduct, particularly as those rules have been adopted by the DC Bar, where Mr. Jacobson is a member.”

“If a government lawyer were to learn client confidences or secrets during his representation of an agency and use such information in litigation against that very same agency, it could very well implicate these ethics obligations,” Chamberlain said. “Although it’s not clear that has happened here, on the face of it, the situation raises many questions.”

Jacobson did not respond to requests for comment.

Insights ‘Few Private Practitioners Can Offer’

In his prior role, Jacobson took the lead on issues involving federal appropriations and funding in the Executive Branch, according to his bio. He oversaw revisions to the Uniform Grants Guidance adopted by agencies in October 2024, which “radically changed the ability of the government to terminate a grant ‘if an award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities,’” as the law firm Holland & Knight explains.

“Specifically, the government is unable to unilaterally terminate an award for this purpose for grants awarded after Oct. 1, 2024, unless the parties specifically included this as an express termination provision in the grant award itself,” the firm notes.

In March, Jacobson announced that he launched his own firm, Jacobson Lawyers Group, which is designed to offer “a full suite of services to entities impacted by the Administration’s funding actions,” according to its website. He left his position at OMB in January, according to LinkedIn.

“From his time as General Counsel at OMB, Dan has insights that few private practitioners can offer in this space, paired with a track record of litigation success,” the law firm’s website states.

WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 20: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin testifies before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment in the Rayburn House Office Building on May 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Zeldin testified on the fiscal year 2026 Environmental Protection Agency budget. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Other attorneys who work with the firm also held roles with the Biden administration: Lynn Eisenberg was principal deputy general counsel for the ED, Robin Runge served on the Department of Labor’s transition team and associate Nina Cahill worked in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Legal Division.

Both John Robinson and Kyla Snow, now counsel at Jacobson’s firm, previously worked at the Biden DOJ.

While at the DOJ, Snow defended the administration’s requests for platforms to censor content in the free speech case Missouri v. Biden. Robinson defended the U.S. Naval Academy’s race-based admissions policies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium during COVID-19, according to his bio.

Federal law prohibits former officials from attempting to influence the government, including a federal court, on a matter where they “participated personally and substantially as such officer or employee.”

“This applies to particular party matters such as particular grants, contacts, etc. by the government, but not to general policy and regulations,” Richard Painter, former chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “So the question is what particular grants, contracts etc, did he participate in while at OMB? Is he representing back to the government in any of those matters, which is illegal, or is he representing back to the government in separate particular party matters or on interpretations of statutes and regulations, which is legal. Grants guidance applicable to all or most grant recipients would fall in the latter category, but guidance on a particular grant would fall in the former category.”

Keeping Money Flowing 

Jacobson’s name appears in connection with at least five lawsuits against the Trump administration, though it’s unclear whether he worked directly on the grants involved while at OMB.

Jacobson filed an amicus brief May 14 on behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council to support the Climate United Fund’s lawsuit against the EPA.

In the final days of the Biden administration, the EPA placed $20 billion for its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) grant program at Citibank, which the EPA referred to its inspector general in March for potential mismanagement. The GGRF program directed millions in tax dollars to several organizations filled with Democrat donors and deep political connections to the party, including Climate United, the DCNF previously reported.

Climate United sued in March over EPA’s “de facto suspension” of a grant awarded in 2024 by taking “behind-the-scenes efforts to cause Citibank to withhold” funds in an account.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals paused an order that would have forced the funds’ release in April.

Jacobson, on behalf of the Protect Democracy Project, also sued OMB directly in April over its decision to stop operating its website that makes apportionments public. Trump’s OMB Director Russ Vought expressed concern that disclosing “sensitive, predecisional, and deliberative information” could “pose a danger to national security and foreign policy,” per the lawsuit.

Jacobson filed an amended complaint in April seeking disbursement of frozen USAID funds to multiple groups, including the American Bar Association.

“Neither the President nor his subordinates have authority to thwart duly enacted statutes and substitute their own funding preferences for those that Congress has enacted through legislation, or to delay or defer for policy reasons the obligation and expenditure of funds that Congress has appropriated,” the lawsuit alleges.

He filed an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit brought by multiple nonprofits against the Education Department over grants terminated due to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

He likewise appeared in the nonprofit organization Child Trend’s lawsuit against the HHS for canceling grants, including one to “develop a research center on the strengths and needs of Hispanic children and families with low incomes.”

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